I think, the main goal of Thomas Schütte's art is to reestablish fallow fields of visual art, which have been abandoned and considered 'Kitsch' or bad taste by avant-garde artists of the 1970s.

Thomas Schütte; photo: David Ertl, Cologne

Much of Schütte's art circles around questions of art as a model and the (architectural) model as art. It is an interesting experience to walk through a 'model' higher than a man. I read the super-sized model of a hotel, which will never be built, as an ironic comment about the monumentalism of SovietLenin mouments - or any other figure representing social utopia.

He investigates the common ground and the separation of visual arts and architecture. Often he refers to the architect Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728 - 1799), who was the leading utopian architect during the time of the French revolution.

Schütte graduated in 1981 from Düsseldorf Art Academy. His professor was the German painter star Gerhard Richter. Schütte says, 'It is hard to beat your teacher in a field, in which he seems to be unbeatable.' Therefore, he gained his fame as 'post-modern' sculptor and drawer.